Building Big Old Arcade Machine

Finally, the wood I ordered arrived. Time to cut it and prepare. Though I still plan to live in my place in the meantime, let's move to the basement. Hey, look, an old-school tape recorder! What a happy times.

So, let the work begin. It's a wonderful feeling when you get your hands on stuff that materialise the idea you are going for. Then you realise there is no way back - you just have to finish it. 

First thing to do is cut the wood. Most pieces are rectangular, so for the start it's pretty simple. Just take a jigsaw and keep your hand straight. Oh, and the sides are a bit more interesting, but still the same routine.

After that, sand the sides and especially the edges. A good thing I got to borrow an electrical sanding machine (or whatever it's called...), saved me quite some time. Unfortunately, there's so much dust in the process, so be sure to use the respirator or anything that prevents you from breathing dust. And if you have a window, it's time to open it up!

Alright, a few evenings in the basement, and I'm past through this beginning process. What's coming next is to cut the holes for all the outputs in the box, i.e. for speakers, coin doors, ventilation, etc. Sand these parts, apply primer and paints. But that's for the next time. See you later!

Just in the morning I wrote the first entry on building arcade cabinet. And to show that it actually is becoming true (though it's hard to believe after procrastinating for soooo long), I present to you... yet-to-be-built MAME!

To be honest, this is more of pre-building phase of the project. I wanted to get a bit more confident and see what problems could arise immediately, so I decided on a paper prototype. Got myself the biggest paper box I could find (from some kind of supermarket), and using the original cabinet designs ( drawings here ), started cropping with scissors. Unfortunately, the box was not big enough to build the actual size prototype, so I dropped the upper part of it (as an alternative to scale the designs).

Still, the first baby step is made and I'm proud of it. Oh, and I added the custom control panel prototype I made some time ago. It all just feels and looks amazing! So, while the actual work in my basement has already advanced a bit further, here I present you a prototype, a placeholder for the actual arcade machine. Well, just until the building is done.

Hello world! 

The blog you are reading now starts with one purpose and one purpose only. While I am building my own arcade machine (let's just call it MAME), this is going to serve as a diary with all the thoughts, images, step-by-step process of production.

Let's start from a very beginning - how it all started. The reasonable first question for normal people would be "why the hell one would want to make his own box with a computer inside (or MAME)?". This is a good question, but also with a good answer. Do you like games? Do you remember playing any game on computer 10 or 20 years ago, in your childhood? People build such machines all over the world to play these games - retro games, paying respect to the history of gaming, keeping them remembered. Oh, and do you remember the feeling of inserting a coin into such machine, when you get a credit to play?

To tell you the truth, the motivator for me were those coins. Together with an event of trying MAME myself. Once, as a student in university exchange program, I was learning game design with a really cool teacher, who brought his own arcade machine (weecade) to the class and let us play it. I was so excited that I wanted to go back home, build my own MAME and share this enormous joy I felt with my friends. And this was a breaking point for me.

The idea was made, and it was pretty good idea IMO. But do you remember any plan without obstacles in a way? It was just about the time to bump into one. In my own mind it all played perfectly: go back, build, share. So I started reading all the stuff I could find about these big boxes, found drawings, found images, explanations, even a Facebook group for people who actually make this stuff. Bought some joysticks, buttons and started making the very first test for upcoming arcade. But then it dawn on me that I have no idea how to cut wood, how to edit the designs to suit my needs, how to do any of the actual building part. I started procrastinating: "I'll do it tomorrow/next week/next month/..."

Though it took some time, buttons, electronics, an old PC - all the stuff that was already dedicated for MAME began to nag me just by staying in the room. So I decided to make this old PC to work - the thing I do the best in this project. Following a small gap of another procrastination (or let's just say, "mind preparation") period, I dared to buy some wood. Now, I believe, there's only way forward.

Finally, we go!

A rough timeline so far:

Project idea at mid 2012

Custom controls test at mid 2013

Setting up old PC at mid 2014